The winds of change continue to buffet our world of radio. Last month, Martin Hadlow noted an article in The Economist that reported an upturn in SW listening in Africa and India, and reports that the BBC plans to upgrade its SW transmitter
facility on Ascension to be powered by a wind farm.
North American SW Broadcasters have decided to conduct research into current SW listening patterns in North America, digital HD radio receivers are dropping from radio shop inventories in the USA, and even American AM stations with IBOC
capability are choosing in some cases not to use it because of interference issues.
At the same time, Mexico has approved digital HD facilities for many of its border AM stations, and Australian and New Zealand AM and FM networks appear slow to adopt digital radio systems as the economic conditions tighten and no real benefit from introducing new channels seems clear. Austria still plans to closedown its SW broadcasts at the end of the year, Singapore has just gone silent.
In China, greater prosperity and availability of low cost radios is leading to the growth of a new hobby – DXing. Chinese DXers are now actively reporting local stations on SW, AM and FM and the stations are responding with detailed confirmations
and issuing QSL cards. As most of this activity occurs within the bounds of China and the Chinese language, it’s hard to gauge how big the phenomenon really is, but it has potential to introduce millions of new SW listeners and/or DXers to the hobby. Already, western SW broadcasters are noting a greater flow of reception reports from inside China, despite current jamming of a wide range of foreign broadcasts.
We also underestimate the fascination that SW radio continues to hold for listeners in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Although technology jumping occurs to hear new commercial and community FM signals on mobile phones, AM and SW radio continues to provide the backbone for national radio services here and will continue to
do so for decades. International broadcasters still support local listeners clubs, thousands of newlocal FM community stations are planned across India, and again, SW listening and/or DXing is more popular than we give credit for.
Meanwhile, Anker Petersen’s Trends in Tropical Bands Broadcasting released recently, traces adecline from 1,106 stations in 1973 to just 258 in 2008.
[August Mailbag Commentary by this months
editor, David Ricquish/Aug 2008]
(ODXA/Listening-In, Sept. 08)
